EDITORIAL 345 



A Disarmament of Nature 



The relation of food supply to abundance of life was never 

 better exemplified than by the return of and multiplication of 

 beasts of prey on the land reservations where animals are protected. 

 Under this protection the deer multiplied in nimibers as did many 

 of the smaller herbivorous anim.als and wherever this occurred 

 wolves again appeared in the region. The timber wolf was ex- 

 terminated years ago in the New England and Middle States 

 but as soon as the deer became plentiful in the forest preserves 

 they mysteriously appeared again. In 1907 we spent a simimer 

 in the high Sierras and our guide, a man of experience and good 

 judgement, declared that if the Government wished to protect 

 the deer, it would have to send hunters to kill the mountain lions 

 which were destroying large numbers of deer every year. 



The Government has now done this and during the past six 

 years nearly 700 mountain lions have been killed and more than 

 3,000 timber wolves and more than 100,000 coyotes have been 

 exterminated by official hunters. However, the cunning of these 

 wary animals will insure that enough elude the traps and the 

 guns of the hunters to start a new generation that will multiply 

 and flourish in the region of plentiful food. 



How like our Disarmament Conference this is! Though we 

 scrap the dreadnoughts and limit their nimiber there will still 

 be enough left for war if a nation decides to undertake it. 

 Meanwhile the chemists are working on deadly gases that the 

 aeroplanes may distribute over wide areas and exterminate whole 

 populations. Not until the nations have learned loyalty to the 

 Prince of Peace will Wars end. 



